Heineken Ignite turns the bottle into an interface for a more socially connected drinking experience between people and the club. The bottle literally lights up when people clink any two together for a “cheers”. It sparks when they take a sip, and goes to sleep when left untouched.

The bottles also react to music in the club. The lights can be remotely activated and controlled by specially developed VJ software resulting in the bottles pulsing to the music beat.

The first prototype although a little clunky and still separate from the bottle itself served as a proof of concept.

The next challenge was to minimize the hardware. Everything needed to fit underneath a bottle of Heineken.

With a custom designed board the tech team managed get everything to work in something that was just a little bigger than a 2 Euro coin.

The project went from first brief to prototype in just 10 weeks. I think we’ll see more and more agencies adopt this kind of startup mentality and rapid prototyping. It will require agencies to partner clients in a much more collaborative process that goes beyond messaging, delving into product design.